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Lex et Scientia Barack Obama: The Law Student Posted: December 17, 2008
“I went to Harvard Law School spending most of three years in poorly lit libraries, poring through cases and statutes,” Obama wrote in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father.” Over the last two years, he hasn’t dwelled publicly on his HLS daysnot surprising during a campaign where the label “elitist” proved a potent political epithet. But his time at HLS had an important impact on Obama, says David Mendell, who wrote the 2007 biography “Obama: From Promise to Power.” “I don’t think you can discount how much that period helped educate him and played a big role in his development,” says Mendell, a former Chicago Tribune reporter. It was as a law student that Obama first made historyand national headlineswhen he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in the spring of 1990." Read more. The Brutal Side of Fraternity Hazing In 1994 I represented a college student at Tennessee State University who had been brutally hazed as part of his initiation to a Black fraternity. His name was Wardell Pride. He was a courageous young man who broke the code of silence and exposed the very sinister and sadistic side of college hazing. His story and the case was covered by the New York Times. "Lawsuit Shatters Code of Silence Over Hazing at Black Fraternities" (New York Times, December 21, 1994). His case was settled and he has gone on to lead a happy and successful life, including playing professional tennis. Quite a different road and result for Brian Nichols. You may have read last week that Brian Nichols, the man who went on a shooting spree at a courthouse in Georgia was sentenced to prison last week (a life sentence without parole). Nichols shot and killed the Superior Court judge in his case, Rowland Barnes, and court reporter Julie Brandau, in Barnes’ courtroom. He shot and killed Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Hoyt Teasley on the street outside the courthouse, and U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm later that night in Buckhead. In his defense his attorneys cited to his terrible childhood and to something that caught my attention and was all too familiar. Nichols had been the victim of a brutal hazing episode at a Black fraternity in college in 1990: "The witness said Nichols was subjected to brutal beatings during hazings when he was a fraternity pledge in the early 1990s at Newberry College in South Carolina. :
For more details on the legal ramifications of hazing: Read here. Law Offices of David Randolph Smith & Edmund J. Schmidt Announce Charitable Donation Program A donation to Action Against Hunger is made by the firm from any attorneys' fees obtained by settlement or judgment. Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF) is a global humanitarian organization committed to eliminating world hunger. Through integrated programs in nutrition, water and sanitation, and food security, ACF works to save the lives of malnourished children while ensuring families have access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger. Read more. Please donate here Yes We Did!
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